: there was no
real cause for anxiety. It would never do for Clara to be behind the
rest of the girls of her age in intellectual attainments: it would be
doing her injustice, for she was so manifestly calculated to shine; and
if God had given her the abilities and the tastes, surely they ought to
be cultivated. She could return by-and-by to her work in the Sunday-
school and the parish. And then, how much better it was that she should
be acquiring really solid and useful knowledge, which would be always
valuable to her, than be spending her energies on any of the worldly or
frivolous pursuits which were entangling and spoiling so many well-
disposed girls in our day."

Alas! The poor mother, whose own heart and conscience were not really
satisfied with these reasonings, had forgotten, or failed to see, that
the same devotion to study which kept her daughter out of the ensnaring
ways of worldliness and frivolity, equally kept her from treading that
path of shining usefulness along which all must walk who would fulfil
the great purpose for which God has put us into this land of probation
and preparation for our eternal home.

Thomas Bradly saw plainly how matters were, and when the vicar hinted at
his difficulties connected with his daughter's pursuits, as they were
talking together over Sunday-school and parochial work, spoke out his
mind plainly and faithfully.

"Well, Thomas," said Mr Maltby, "you see a little how I am situated.
My dear child is, I trust and believe, a true Christian; but I am free
to confess that I am sadly disappointed at the turn which things have
taken about her studies."

"I can well believe it, sir," was Bradly's reply, "and I feel for you
with all my heart. And I'm disappointed myself about Miss Clara, and
so's scores more in the parish. The Sunday-school ain't the same as it
was--no, nor the parish neither, now that she don't come among us as she
used to do. But there's a twist somewheres in people's views about the
education of young ladies in our day. 'Tain't so much in my way, sir,
it's true, as it is in yours, to notice these things; but sometimes them
as is standing a little way off gets a better view of how things really
are than them as is quite close by."

"Quite so, Thomas," said the other. "Tell me, then, candidly what you
think about this matter."

"I'll do so, sir, as I know you'll not misunderstand me; and you know
that I love you and yours with all my heart. Well,